Category Archives: Finance

Stop Running Your Restaurant or Taproom Off the Bank Balance and Late P&Ls

Why “how much is in the account?” and late P&Ls are too slow—and what a fractional CFO does instead When guest counts start to wobble and every invoice feels a little heavier, the numbers in your business stop being “nice to know” and start being survival tools. But most restaurant and taproom operators still manage

When Traffic Softens but Costs Climb: The Weekly Dashboard Every Operator Needs

When guest counts start to soften and every invoice feels a little heavier, the numbers in your business stop being “nice to know” and start being survival tools. That’s where a simple weekly dashboard comes in. 2025 at a glance: restaurant reality check Sales vs. traffic. Same-store sales were up just about 1% in September

Cash Is a Menu Item Too: Designing Your Restaurant’s Cash-Flow Playbook

In a restaurant, nothing on the menu is there by accident. Every dish has a role: Some are margin workhorses. Some are guest magnets. Some are there to complete the story of who you are. Cash should work the same way. Most independent restaurants run on pre-tax profit margins of roughly 3–5%. For every $100

Stop Letting Pay Dates Distort Your Labor: A Better Way to See (and Staff) the Work

Most operators still “measure” labor when payroll hits the bank. The problem? Pay dates are arbitrary—they don’t line up with when service actually happened. That mismatch hides real staffing needs, dilutes productivity insights, and muddies profitability. If we care about labor productivity (not just labor percent), we have to measure labor where it lives: in